The University of Findlay: Making the Most Out of the QM Teaching Online Certificate

“The Teaching Online Certificate has positively impacted my online learning efforts by providing me with the opportunity to truly reflect on how I design and deliver my online courses.”Nicole Schilling, Professor, The University of Findlay

The University of Findlay (UF) is known for the strides it’s made toward quality, exemplifying the QM community’s spirit of continuous improvement. One key element of its online quality strategy is the QM Teaching Online Certificate (TOC). “The Teaching Online Certificate has positively impacted my online learning efforts by providing me with the opportunity to truly reflect on how I design and deliver my online courses,” says Professor Nicole Schilling, the institution’s QMC. Here are a few key tips taken from the UF’s work on how to get the most out of your engagement with the TOC:

  • Finding Strength in Numbers: Six members of UF’s teaching faculty have taken the TOC. When multiple faculty encounter these deep dives into best practice for online instruction, the result is multiplicative, creating more opportunities to share insights and understanding across departments to benefit more of the institution’s learners.
  • Leveraging a Supplemental License: When institutions work together, every part of the institutional landscape benefits, from learning environments to budget. UF is looking forward to benefiting from the cost savings afforded by the TOC Supplemental License that its QM system, the Ohio Consortium, will soon obtain.
  • Gaining an Advantage With Accreditation: The TOC covers topics that align with those required by accrediting bodies. “Both the Higher Learning Commission and the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation assess our institution’s ability to design and deliver quality online courses and create quality assurance plans that include course design, institutional policies, orienting our online learners, and creating presence,” says Nicole.
  • Giving Special Attention to Online Instruction: Online courses can’t be taught like other modalities — they require special skills and understanding. For UF, that’s where the TOC comes in. “I think it is important to focus on online course delivery, specifically, because online learners and therefore course delivery are different from other modalities. Our course design, institutional policies, orientations, presence, and assessments are unique to our online learners and learning contexts.”
  • Using TOC Understanding to Benefit the Entire Institution: UF sees that the practice-derived, research-supported best practices presented in TOC workshops can positively affect more than just instruction — they can even help shape policy. “Faculty have shared ideas from the Teaching Online Certificate workshops to improve our institutional policies as well as our LMS course template,” says Nicole.

So what benefits has the University of Findlay seen as a result of these innovative efforts? For one thing, its learners are taking notice. “Our faculty have reported positive student feedback from the changes they’ve made in their courses as a result of the Teaching Online Certificate courses,” says Nicole. They hope to expand the impact of quality online teaching to more learners and even stronger course delivery strategies as they grow their investment in the TOC.